Electrical translating device



Jan. 25, 1949. G. c. SOUTHWORTH ELECTRI CAL TRANSLATING DEVICE Filed March 25, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet //v VEN TOR G. C. SOUTHWORTH AT TORNE V Jan. 25, 1949. G. c. SOUTHWORTH 2,460,109

ELECTRICAL TRANSLATING DEVICE Filed March 25, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet //v VEN TOR G. C. SOUT HWORT H ATTORNEY tric charges bound inthe dielectric.

ing charge with "receptacle 4 Patented Jan. 25, 1949 UNIT ED STAT ES PATENT F F ICE 2,460,109 ELECTRICAL TRANSLKTING DEVICE George C. Southworth, RedBank, N. 3., assignor to Bell Telephone Lab oratories, Incorporated,

NewYork, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 25, 1941, Serial No. 385,054

13 Claims.

This invention relates to electrical translating devices comprising electr-ets.

An object of the'invention is to utilize theelectrical saturation properties of electrets in an asymmetrical or non-linear electrical translating device such as a harmonicgeneratorora modulator.

Another object or the invention is :to increase the efficiency of asymmetrically conducting devices used for conversion of the wave form or frequency of electrical oscillations or impulses by use of an asymmetric reactance element as distinguished from the asymmetric resistances com mcnly employed.

If a parallel plate condenser be :filledwith a specially prepared molten :wax dielectric such as carnauba wax or beeswax :or n mixture of the,

two, and an electric potential rbe "impressed .between the plates whilethe iwaxis hardening, the device will exhibit a more :or less permanent electrification apparently occasionedby the elec- Devices of this type were described by Mototaro Eguchi in an article in Philosophical Magazine, vol. 39, 1925, page 1'78. A. Gernanthas ralso-studied-electrets and in an article appearing ati'hilosophical Magazine No. '7, Series .20, 1935, page 9 9., notes that experiments indicate that the curve relatthe polarization field indicates an electric saturation :with :iields of the order of 5 to kilovolts per centimeter.

In accordance with the invention an electret polarized at asufliciently "high potential "to render the device :electricallysaturated is employed as a non-linear translation device in a harmonic generator or modulator.

The invention may :be best understood by reference to "the Jfollowing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. '1 illustrates a section of one embodiment of an 'electret in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 illustrates *schematicfllyafharmonic :gencrating-system ntilizingxthedevlce of Fig. 1.;

Fig.3 is apartiarsectionalong dine 3-3 of Fig.

Fig. *4 illustrates schematically a wave guide system for modulating carrier waves utilizing tan electre't as the modulating element; :and

wave guide receiving system Fig. '5 portrays a f or cooperating with the :transmitter of Fig. '4.

Referring to Fig. 1 an electrically conducting "serves as a container for :a mass of dielectric material 5. The composition of this material and the method or polarizing the "macooled to a temperature of teriai may follow the practice outlined in an article by Good and Stranathan appearing at page 810 of the Physical Review, vol. 56, October 15, 1939. The diaelectric may, therefore, comprise equal weights of resin and carnauba wax initially heated to a temperature of the order of C. After heating sufiiciently long to expel occluded air the material is allowed to cool to 75 C. at a rate determined by surrounding temperatures. The receptacle 5 may be used as the lower .electrode. An upper electrode may besuitably supported above the molten dielectric material .and may have such a diameter as to permit the upper electrode to just make contact with the upper surface of the dielectric material with suificient clearance at its periphery to avoid any spark over to the lower electrode. When the material has C. a unidirectional electrornotive force sufficient to impressan electric field of 8000 volts per centimeter may be applied between the two electrodes. The polarizing electromotive force is maintained until the dielectric material has cooled to room temperature. Thereupon the upper electrode may be removed. Amoisture excluding coverfi of dielectric material is fitted closely into the enlarged upper portion of the container 4. His clamped in place by a conducting cap 1 which is provided with interior threads engaging with threads on the outer periphery of the container 4. A central supporting and lead-in plug member '8 screws into a threaded aperture .at the center of plate 6. A leaf spring 3 electrically connected at its upper end with the plug member 8 makes con-tact at its lower end with the conducting plate 0 which is attached to the upper surface of the electret 5. This serves to complete the electrical connection from the upper surface of the 'electret to the conducting and supporting rod l0. As an alternative the plate 9 may be omitted and a suitably shaped and dimensioned lower end of the leaf spring 3 may make the necessary contact with the upper surface of the electret.

The electret dielectric member 5 of the device of Fig. l may'have a'diameter of approximately 1 centimeter and a thickness of the order of 2 millimeters.

The electret of Fig. 1 formed-under such conditions as to'receive a saturating electric charge may, in accordance with the invention, serve as an asymmetric ior non-linear conducting device because of the fact that an electromotive force applied in one direction is unable to increasethe charge between the electric terminals .of the .electret whereas an oppositely directed electrohead through which the support 13 passes. These around source 24 for motive force is presented by the device with an support the desired harmonic. In addition to effective capacitance. Under these circumserving as a tuner the coaxial provides a constances the current flow in an external circuit in e e t W y of p aci O ea o a Standing which the electret is introduced is no longer pro- Wa e symmetr ca ly a oss t e P peportional to the impressed electromotive force 5 It will be seen from the above that the circuits but varies in much the manner of current reassociated with the electret provide two rather sulting from an alternating electromotive force different o ms of t ansfo mers. In one case the impressed upon the winding of a saturated magtransformer 15 matches, at the fundamental netic core, so that in one direction the half-cycle q ncy, the coaxial feed line to the electret. impulses may be substantially Zero or t m t In the other the tuned chamber II acting as a very sm ll, and, moreover, t linearly propo n. rather unusual form of a transformer matches, at tional to the impressed electromotive force, while the preferred harmonic f eq cy, e o ctl'et in the opposite direction the half-cycle current 5? t0 the p p impulses are relatively larg In practice the system should be proportioned Fig, 2 ill tr t a ystem in which a resonance with regard to the frequencies involved so that chamb r ti H of a wave guide 12 together fundamental power led into the chamber through with a tuned electret ii is used to obtain harthe coaxial l n w ll n t b pr p ted way monic power from a source #3 of fundamental or ough the guide. n dd t harmOIllC l base frequency oscillations. The source [3 is eondeveloped in the electret should not be admitted nected to th ei tr t i: by means of coaxial to the coaxial line. The former is made possible input li is d tuned coupler 15 It is the by setting the critical or cut-off diameter of the unction of the tuning coupler i5 and its a3s0= pipe to discriminate against the fundamental ciated elements to impress on the electret ll a fleqllency- The Second Condition s met y etmaximum of fundemental frequency power from ting the i -p e ser 2 together With the th source I3 tuned circuit 23 to prevent harmonic power from The electret n which may be of the type disentering the coaxial lineclosed in Fig. 1 is electrically connected to the Inasmuch as the Performance Of an electret 15 upper a d 1Qwer supporting members m and g adversely affected by humidity the entire strucre etiv l d is m in position approxi ture enclosing the electret is preferably atmosmately along the axis of the wave guide champhericauy Sealed- A desiccating material as her II. It will be observed that these connecdicated at 23 may be included Within gauze tions place the electret across the secondary of Capsule placed in a Small Side tube 29 communithe 001113191 5 eating through its open end with thespace with- At thi point it is convenient to think of the in the resonance chamber. The diameter of the electret as a new power s r made up f a side tube is made too small to permit, entrance of large number of component electromctive forces the Oscillation energy from chamber I L l each corresponding to a harmonic of the base Over, if desired as an addltiflnal p c ut o q noy. Which one of these components n against deleterious electrical effects by the side be favored to produce useful power 111 depend tube 29, the mouth of the tube may be covered on the nature of the load nt hi h t new 40 with fine wire gauze 30., The active desiccating source is to operate. In the case at hand the agent may be anhydrous calcium sulphate. The

wave guide I2 serves as the load and the tuned e t b 29 may be readily removed and a. re-

chamber ll determines the order of the harmonic placement unit 28 Slipped 111 p to be accepted. It is also desirable that surface charges which The process of tuning is one whereby a 1 accumulate upon the'electret may :be short-cirimpedance is presented to the wanted component Cuited Particularly n p W t e devicis and a high impedance to the unwanted comnot in use. It will be app e ted t GXCBDE ponents. Since these latter impedances are of a o t y-p s co d the COIldllCtlVe p non-dissipative kind, the transfer is relatively afforded by Supports d e u l plun efiicient with the result that power that might er 2|, the wave guide, and the Wm m of h otherwise have resided in unwanted components tuned circuit 23 will serve to remove suchsurface is transferred to the preferred component. After Chargesmanifesting itself in the chamber this harmonic When operated at high energy levels an electret power passes through the iris 26 to the connecting may serve as an asymmetric translating device pipe where it is led away.

with no other fixed bias than that of its inherent In order to bring about this result the various electrical charge. When operated at. very low components are connected as follows: Referring levels it may be desirable to include the source 24 to the low frequency paths it will be observed of series biasingelectromotive force so as to carry that the electret if is placed across the parallelthe operating point to a non-linear region of the circuit 23, the low frequency circuit being comoperating characteristic of the el'ectret. The pleted through the walls of the guide. Following biasing source when used should of course, be the high frequency or harmonic circuit one obdirected with respect to polarity in the same serves that currents arising from the electret manner as the biasing electromotive force by tend to flow downward through condenser 22 which the eiectret wasformed so as to tend to formed by a plate attached to the supporting 55 increase the charge, if possible, thereby assuring conductor is, the plate being spaced and insucharge saturation of the electret. The by-pass lated from the chamber wall by the insulating condenser 25 serves as a low-impedance shunt the oscillations. When the n operation for some time, be electrically disconnected hort circuit to preserve the currents pass through condenser 22 to the walls system is not to be i of the guide and upward to the coaxial tuner 29 the source 24 should and thence back to the electret I'!. These, of and. replacedby as course, are the connections appropriate for effectiveness of the electret which may otherwise launching in the guide 5 I the H11 type of wave. 'be subjected to the deleterious influence of ac- The chamber ll may be tuned by means of the cumulated'surface-charges. piston l6 and the adjustable coaxial tuner to Fig. 3 indicates; in section the structure of the resonance chamber H. In an actual apparatus this chamber may have a length and a diameter each oi the order of 7 or '8 centimeters. These dimensions will, of course, be determined by "the frequency or the oscillations with which thesystern is designed to operate.

Fig. i illustrates a modulation system employing an electret as the modulating element and a wave guide for directing the modulated energy. In the system of Fig. a wave guide -3-2 having a tunable resonance chamber 33 provided with a tuner 35 is associated with a source =35 of carrier waves to be modulated. The source 35 may be located within the chamber 33 and in any event may be connected to diametrically'oppositepoints and ti. A filter 'sect-ion'3'8 comprising a cavity resonant at the carrier frequency may be loosely coupled to chamber 33 by an opening or iris 39 and to the modulating chamber 40 by an iris H. The resonance frequency of cavity may be varied by the frequency varying screws 42 threaded through its Walls at substantially opposite central points. An electret 43 is supported within the chamber 40 in the manner already described in connection with the electret H of Fig. 2. Associated with its external tuned "circuit which is broadly selective for incoming currents and the capacitance of which *by-passes oscillations from the source 35 is an input coaxial line by which incoming speech currents or other modulating waves maybe impressed directly across the terminals of the electret. The coaxial tuner 29 and the desiccating side tube'29 are provided as in the apparatus of Fig. 1. Ascoond resonant cavity filter section 54 similar 'to cavity 38 is coupled by an aperture 46 to the modulating chamber 40 to receive therefrom oscillations of the carrier frequency which have been modulated in accordance with the signal impulses or oscillations from the coaxial line 45. Carrier oscillations impressed upon the modulating chamber A l from the source 35 and resonant cavity 33 will serve to set up an electromotive force between the diametrically opposite points to which the supports of the electret 43 are connected. In consequence of the non-linear characteristic of the device 43 and the simultaneous superposition upon it of electromotive forces of he signal oscillations from coaxial and of the carrier oscillations from cavity 38 there will be r set up in the circuit of the electret 43 combination frequency components representing the modulation side-bands. These modulated waves appearing in the chamber to may then be propagated to the right along the wave guide through the selective section.

Fig. 5 illustrates a wave guide receiving system which may be employed to receive and detect modulated waves such as those directed to the right in the system of Fig. 4. The incoming wave guide may include a filter section 51 designed in accordance with the principles of the copendil'lg application, Serial No. 359,643, filed October l, 19%, since abandoned, to transmit along the wave guide, in the direction indicated by the arrow, a desired band including the modulated waves to be demodulated while substantially excluding oscillations outside the desired band. A restricted section is also of the type described in application Serial No, 359,643 may cooperate with the filter A! to increase the attenuation for certain undesired oscillations. The wave guide terminates in a tunable demodulating chamber as provided with an electret which responds to simultaneously impressed electromotive forces of the modulated carrier oscillations received over thewave guide 46 and locally impressed electrornotive forces of the unmodulated carrier irequeney received over coaxial to reproduce signal or modulating frequency waves and to impress these demodulated signal waves upon coaxial 52. Coaxial til is provided with an ad- 'justa'ble telescopic central conductor 53 which may be varied in position to impress unmodulated carrier oscillations upon chamber 49.

1t will-be understood that since the conversion devices of this invention are essentially asymmetric reactances they afford a possibility of a much more efficient energy conversion than do the commonly used asymmetric devices which depend upon a 'non-linea' resistive component "of impedance. In such non-linear resistive component devices most of the impressed energy is dissipated as heat and the conversion efficiency maybe of the order of 5 per cent.

"Itfis to be understood that although the inven 'tion has been illustrated as embodied in certain specific forms, it is not to be restricted thereto but onlyby the scope of the appended claims.

'What is claimed is:

I. Anon-linear translating device for alternating electric currents comprising an electret consist'ing of two separated conducting members, a fixed dielectric located between the members permanently prepolarized to electric saturation and a source of biasing potential connected between the conducting elements by a path of high impedance to alternating currents of the frequency of the alternating electromotive force to which the device is to be subjected.

2. In combination, wave guide section resonant at a given frequency, the wave guide section being atmospherically sealed and a shunt path across the guide including an electret.

3. In combination, a resonant electrical chamber, a shunt path across the interior of the chamber comprising an electret and a tuning device in series.

4. In combination, a physically closed electrically resonant system, an interior path in shunt to the system including an electret and a desiccating means within the system.

5. A wave guide, a resonant electrical cavity coupled thereto by an aperture common to the guide and the cavity, an electret within the cavity, and means for tuning the cavity at will.

6. A harmonic generator comprising a source of base frequency oscillations, an. electrically saturated electret exhibiting a non-linear impedance for impressed alternating electromotive forces means for impressing oscillations from the source upon the electret, output terminals electrically connected to the electret and means connectd to the terminals for selecting therefrom resultant electrical oscillations of a frequency which is a multiple of that of the base frequency oscillations.

'7. A wave guide system comprising a tunable chamber, an electrically saturated electret connected to two interior points of the chamber between which a high diference of potential tends to exist, and means for simultaneously introducing within the chamber oscillations of a carrier frequency and oscillations corresponding to signals in accordance with which the carrier is to be modulated.

8. In combination, a source of alternating electromotive force of a given fundamental frequency, a fixed dielectric permanently electrically saturated electret connected thereto and elecfrequency also connected to the withdrawing corresponding oscillations of said.

trically selective output means connected to the electret to selectively withdraw therefrom oscillations, the frequency of which is a multiple of the given fundamental frequency.

9. An energy transmission system comprising a hollow wave guide and an electret Within the guide and electrically connected between two points which are at different potential when the gu de is oper ,ting to transfer energy.

10. A modulating system comprising a source of oscillations, a source of varying electrical potentials with which the oscillations are to be intermodulated, and an electrically saturated which both sources are electrically connected.

11. An electrical system for deriving from alternating electric currents of one frequency corresponding oscillations of a different frequency comprising a permanently electrically saturated fixed dielectric electret having conducting members electrically insulated from each other spaced in juxtaposition to opposite faces of the dielectric terminals connected to the conducting members, the characteristic of the electret relating resultant current to alternating electromotive forces applied to its terminals being non-linear, a source of alternating electromotive force of one frequency connected to the terminals and an output circuit selective for currents of a different different frequency.

12. An electrical converting system for deriving from alternating electric currents of one frequency corresponding electrical oscillations of aterminals for.

difierent frequency comprising a source of alternating current of the one frequency, a non-linear translating device comprising an electrically saturated electret connected to said source, and means connected to the electret for selecting oscilla= tions of said different frequency.

13. In combination, a source of alternating current of a given frequency, a non-linear translating device comprising an electrically saturated electret connected thereto, a resonant closed conducting chamber enclosing the electret and serving to exclude moisture therefrom, and means connected to the chamber to select therefrom oscillations produced by the operation of the electret and of a frequency difierent from that of said source of alternating current.

GEORGE C. SOUTHWORTH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,712,993 Heising May 1 1, 1929 1,885,728 Keith Nov. 1, 1932 1,891,780 Rutherford Dec. 20, 1932 1,908,249 Hand May 9, 1933 1,999,686 De Amicis Apr. 30, 1935 2,106,768 Southworth Feb. 1, 1938 2,106,769 Southworth Feb. 1, 1938 2,129,711 Southworth Sept. 13, 1938 2,142,159 Southworth et a1. Jan. 3, 1939 2,153,728 Southworth Apr. 11, 1939 2,163,740 Wales June 29, 1939 

